The Long Overdue Conversation
by cybergirl26
Summary: Another finale fix-it story taking place the night of the Halloween/Saying Goodbye to the Apartment party.
1. Chapter 1

"The gang Lily? Here is what the gang is to me. It's a married couple, about to have their third child, it's my ex-husband, hitting on slutty what evers right in front of me…" Robin's voice cracked and she shook her head, unable to continue.

"Oh sweetie." Lily took a step towards her but Robin but a hand up.

"No, don't. I just…I need to get out of here, I'm sorry."

Lily nodded and watched as Robin left the apartment. She almost jumped when Barney suddenly jumped through the window.

"I screwed up, huh?" He asked, "I didn't know she'd be here."

Lily looked over at Barney, he looked ridiculous in his costume, but then again, he'd been making a fool out of himself a lot lately.

"I need to pee." Lily said and turned around.

…

Robin only made it into the hallway before she started to cry uncontrollably.

Why had she thought coming here tonight would be a good idea? She should have ordered Sushi and stayed in.

Or gone to some random bar and picked up by a stranger. Maybe that would have helped her get her life back on track.

It's not like things could have gotten worse if she'd done that.

"I'm sorry." She barely heard the words but still knew the second his arms wrapped around her who was talking.

He turned her around and she stepped away, but he didn't let her out of the embrace and so they ended up hugging in the hallway, him leaning on the wall.

"I'm sorry." He said again, very sincerely.

So apparently things could get worse, Robin thought and pushed back.

"What? Why? I don't know what you are thinking but I'm not crying over you, so stop this."

They were disrupted by the apartment door being opened.

Great, another person who'd see her like this, Robin frowned.

Barney moved so quickly and swift that he caught her by surprise when his lips collided with hers and his hands shifted her head in the right angle.

Reflexes kicked in and her hands flew up to his torso, surprisingly her fingers brushed against metal.

"Get a room." Robin heard someone say behind her.

Barney stopped kissing her and pulled her against himself instead, her face turned away from the people who had just exited the party.

"Call me." A female voice called over and Robin guessed that it was the slutty cop from earlier.

She stepped back and away from him the second they were alone again, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Look, can we talk?" Barney asked.

Robin didn't get his angle, was he looking for a backslide?

"We could go to the 24hr diner one block over." He proposed.

"Talk about what? How it's inappropriate to just kiss me these days?"

"I was doing you a favor, you hate it when people see you cry."

"I doubt that's an excuse that would hold up in court."

"Robin, can we please talk?" He asked once again.

What did she have to loose?

"Fine."

…

She noticed how people were eyeing them. She in her business attire and he in his ridiculous rocker costume, they were certainly a werid combo.

They'd ordered coffee but hadn't talked yet.

"So you got a nipple piercing, huh?" Robin finally asked to break the silence.

Barney nodded, "it's supposed to be stimulating."

"Supposed? It's not working?" She asked.

Barney shook his head, "honestly, nothing has been working since we broke up."

"What?" Robin asked surprised, she wasn't expecting such an honest revelation. Or maybe it was just a joke, or part of a play to get her into bed.

"Turns out you ruined me for other women."

"Yeah right."

"I'm serious." Barney insisted.

Their coffee came and their little bit of conversation died off completely once again.

"Well, maybe the slutty cop can get you out of your funk." Robin finally said bitterly.

"Robin? Can we…be honest right now?"

"Sure."

He took a deep breath, "I really miss you."

"Yeah, I saw that."

"I didn't know you were coming. You didn't come to any of the group get-togethers, how should I have known that you were coming tonight?" He was clearly frustrated that she was still bringing him hitting on another woman up but then he calmed down again, "I would have worn Cornelious if I'd known that you'd be there. And I would have brought your Canada mug and finally given it to you. And I would have gotten a haircut and worn the aftershave you gotten me."

"Barney I'm going to stop you right there. You don't have to make anything up to me, okay? Yes, I might have had an emotional moment…but it was something that Lily said, not you."

"I thought we'd be honest with each other." He retorted, "I heard the whole conversation, I went after you the second you walked away."

Robin sighed heavily.

"I'm not trying to humiliate you Robin, and I'm not trying to make myself feel better for what happened on that roof either. I just want to talk to you about what happened to us."

"There is nothing to talk about. You wanted an out and I gave it to you."

"You offered an out and I took it. I never would have suggested getting a divorce myself."

"Oh great, so it's all my fault."

"No. We hit a rough patch and were too lazy and busy to work on our issues."

"Why does it even matter?" Robin asked annoyed.

"Because I need to know how you really feel about the divorce Robin."

She averted her gaze and he reached over and took her hands in his.

"Okay, I get it. Opening up and being vulnerable sucks, so I'll go first. Robin, I love you. And I was unhappy in our marriage. But here is the thing, I am miserable now. The last months have shown me what unhappy really feels like. I miss you so damn much, you were my best friend for so long and now I got nothing. I went through a divorce, and couldn't even rely on my best friend to be there to pick me up. You know how much that sucked?"

"Yeah, I do." Robin replied softly.

"Being stuck in a luxury hotel room in an amazing city, waiting for this hot chick to come back seems like a fairytale now, even when having to deal with no wi-fi."

Robin smiled, "so what? You want to get back together? Is that what you are asking?"

Barney shook his head, "I want to know how you feel. I need to know in order to move on. Because if you are happier now, then it's worth it."

"I miss you too." She whispered.

Barney started to grin, "really?"

She nodded, "but I…I don't know if I'm ready to sacrifice my job for this. I mean, I should, I know that but I am scared that I'll regret it one day. I mean right now I'm on the verge of becoming a huge success, but I can't have both and …"

"You can." He interrupted her.

"What?"

"I'm not asking you to give up your career. I'll have a better attitude if we'll go back to traveling. I mean I get to explore all these amazing places, I got nothing to complain. And the daily boner joke is over anyway, turns out it's really hard to think of them when you are going through a break-up and can't even get a boner yourself."

It made her grin for a second but then she sobered up again, "Barney this is insane."

"Yes but…we never should have gotten divorced Robin. I mean what the hell where we thinking?"

"But we did and that changes things."

"Not for me."

She closed her eyes for a moment.

He was sitting next to her when she opened them again, his arm resting around her shoulder.

"I love you Robin." He whispered.

"You look so dumb in that wig." She replied.

He took it off and smoothened his hair out, "better?"

"Barney we can't keep doing this. I mean we got divorced, that's huge!"

"Because neither one of us had the guts to stop the whole thing and reveal how he really felt about it. Neither one of us wanted to make a fool out of themselves. But I don't care anymore Robin. I mean look at me, I am making a fool out of myself right now."

"You aren't." She replied softly, her hands playing with his yellow scarf.

She could tell that he was hesitating and looked back up, smiling lightly.

That was all the permission he needed and he leaned in and kissed her gently, whispering, "will you please give this another chance?" when he moved back.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" she replied softly.

He nodded, "100%."

This time it was her who leaned in to kiss him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow thank you guys so much for all these reviews. It was supposed to be a one-shot but then I read all these wonderful reviews and decided to write another chapter after all. Hence you guys made this happen :)**

"There is something you should know." Robin said as she pulled back.

Barney looked at her surprised, "okay?"

"I'm leaving for Barcelona tomorrow morning." She whispered.

He pulled back and started to search for something in his pockets.

Great, this was it, he was going to pay for the coffees and leave her once again, Robin thought.

But instead of pulling out his wallet, he actually got his phone out.

"Which flight?" he asked as he pulled up a browser.

"United, eight am."

"Direct?"

Robin nodded and watched as he went to the united website.

"What are you doing?"

Barney didn't reply and instead pulled the flight up, clicking the booking bottom.

"Barney you can't just book a last minute plane ticket to Barcelona." Robin argued as she watched him enter his credit card information.

"Yes I can, see." He showed her the confirmation page.

"You are completely and utterly insane." She giggled and kissed him once again.

"I think we should get out of here, we have an early day tomorrow." He replied and waived the waitress over to their table.

They were in a cab within minutes.

"Where to?" The cabby asked.

"Which hotel are you staying at?" Barney asked and Robin told them both.

"Let's see, Barcelona this time of year probably just barely warmer then here? Right?" Barney thought loud.

Robin nodded, she hadn't really cared about the city or the weather until this point.

"Is there anything I should bring? Like something special?"

"I don't think so." Robin replied.

"Okay, then…I'll pick you up at…five am?" He asked.

She nodded, a part of her had thought that he'd spend the night with her, but it made sense that he didn't, after all they both had to pack.

They'd start fresh in Spain.

The cab pulled up in front of the hotel and Barney leaned in to kiss her goodnight, "I can't wait to go on another adventure with you."

"Me neither." She replied.

This time things would be different.

…

Barney put the armrest up and his arm around her. He'd somehow convinced the stewardess to seat them next to each other, and now that there were two hours and a meal into the flight, they'd started their routine.

She'd snuggle up to him and go to sleep, while he binge watched movies.

"This is perfect," Barney whispered, "this is the first flight in ever in which I don't know all the movies yet."

Robin grinned and breathed his aftershave in, he'd used the one she'd bought him and that she liked so much on him.

"Sleep well." He added and kissed her hair.

…

They made it to the hotel, quickly freshened up and then went out to grab a bite to eat.

Afterwards he proposed that they could take a walk on the boardwalk and watch the sunset, but even though the whole thing was very romantic, something was still missing and Robin could tell that Barney felt it too.

Yes they kissed a couple of times, but never with the kind of passion that would lead to other things. In fact, Barney didn't make any move or proposition towards sleeping with her at all.

It was weird. They were back together, but they weren't. Something was still standing between them but neither one of them said that our loud or tried to address it in another way.

Later in bed, he ended up putting his arm around her stomach and whispered a sweet "love you" into her ear, which she returned, but that was it.

No sleazy comments, or sneaky hands. Nothing.

Maybe the fairytale wasn't happening the way Robin had thought it would after all and they had been kidding themselves last night when they'd thought that they could just go back to _them._

…

Robin was already gone when Barney woke up the next morning and to his dismay she hadn't even left him a note.

It wasn't that he was a helpless romantic himself, but she used to do that.

He told himself that she'd probably been tired and cranky and didn't think of it this morning, but he wasn't able to ignore doubting them and this move completely.

He finally left the hotel room to get something to eat around noon, determined to forget all about it and instead focus on the good side. He was in freaking Spain with Robin, this was the dream!

Or was it?

…

"The shooting is running late, won't be back for at least another hour. I'm sorry." He couldn't help but feel disappointed when he read her text.

He'd made sure to be back at the hotel around four pm, hoping that Robin would get off work early and meet him here. But all hope was lost now.

He took a deep breath and looked out the window, this was the make or break moment.

Would he handle it as he'd always done, with resentment and annoyance. Or would he do things truly differently this time?

…

Robin took a deep breath before entering her key card into the door.

She knew that Barney would be mad, it was almost nine o'clock and he'd probably waited for hours without eating.

Gosh this sucked, why did everything have to run long today?

She pushed the door open and walked into the room.

"There you are." Barney grinned, he was sitting on the bed, in midst of a mess of papers, plastic and boxes.

There was a huge bouquet of flowers on the desk and she let her bag slide to the door.

"I'm sorry that it took so long, I hope you got something to eat?" she asked.

"Don't even worry about it. I got a snack, and then I went shopping and guess what? I decided to start a new blog, but nothing like the old one..."

Robin was only listening with one ear and instead walked up to the beautiful flowers.

"…I'll do a travel block. Look, I got this kick-ass camera with an additional zoom and night thingy…it'll take me weeks to figure it out but that's okay, I've got the time, right? And then once I do, I'll explore the cities, take cool pics and post tips and traveljournals online. But cool ones."

Robin had opened the card on the flowers,

 _I'm so proud of you and your work Robin. Xoxo Barney_

She turned around and looked at him, he just now realized that she had been preoccupied with the flowers.

"Oh right, I picked those up for you too. That's the reason I initially went out again."

She put the card down and hurled herself towards him, their lips colliding immediately.

Barney got hold of his new camera and placed in on the nightstand before wrapping his arms around Robin to pull her tighter towards him, deepening the kiss.

…

"That was amazing." Barney whispered, "the nipple piercing is more stimulating after all."

Robin laughed softly at that, her head was lying on his chest and she closed her eyes for a moment.

"This is perfect." She whispered.

"Mhh." She could feel him move and moments later she heard the shutter of the camera.

She opened her eyes and watched him trying to take a selfie of them, he missed every time though.

"You can flip the screen to view what you are shooting from the front of the camera." Robin said and showed him how the little screen folded out.

"How cool." Barney commented fascinated.

He took another picture, this time getting both of them in the frame.

"Do you mind being in pictures I post on the blog? I know with you celebrity status that might cause problems."

"You can post whatever you want. Just keep it clean." She replied.

He nodded and took another shot.

"I love you Barney." She whispered.

"I love you too." He replied.

"This is truly perfect." She grinned and kissed his chest.

"Not quiet." He countered and lowered the camera to get something else from the side of the bed.

Robin decided that she didn't care what it was and closed her eyes once again.

"Look what I brought."

She did, he was holding her engagement ring.

"I know it's probably too early but… I really liked seeing you with my rings, and I know that the second one won't be added again anytime soon, if ever. But what about this one? It doesn't have to be an engagement ring, but rather a ring that demonstrates that we might, one day, get married."

Robin grinned and pulled her hand up to his, offering him to put it on.

"I'm all yours."

Barney let it slide over her ring finger and looked at it for a second before kissing her.

Two days later Barney posted his first blog entry on Bro's Travel Logs entitled: "She said Yes!"

 **The End**


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